Candlemaking and more

Here's a peek at some fun stuff we've done (in random order): dipping string in hot wax, rubber band guitar, water jar scale, a river expedition, playing in the sand, fractions, and learning about life cycles with our pea plants.

15 school days down, 165 to go...

Year E Month 2

These are the books Raccoon and I will be using this month and perhaps longer. And a picture of his latest "invention," an airplane. (I'm posting this from my phone and don't know how to rotate pics.)

The Kindergarten Scholar book is to help his pre-writing skills since he's pretty much got the concepts. But I want to expose him to traditional formats, following directions, and some pencil/paper stuff. I thought the Dust Bowl book would be fun because it's dry season here and very dusty/windy.

Kitty is having fun with sensory activities and gross motor tasks, like running and forward rolls. She doesn't talk much yet but I'm expecting a language explosion any day now. Her receptive language is great in Spanish and English. She's 18 months old. She's in Year B. :)

And I figured out something about myself. I love my children and I have a wonderful life but my brain is bored. I don't have a lot of time or energy for a big pursuit, but I am going to start teaching myself Quechua, a local language here. That is what the Busy Words book is for, me to make a picture dictionary. I'm hoping that the kids will pick up a few words too. Otherwise I've been driving my husband to distraction collecting pets. I need some sort of intellectual outlet because my brain feels like it's turning to mush. We'll see how this goes. I wonder if there's an app for that...

Year E begins!!

We have a schoolroom! My mother and father came to visit for a wonderful month, and while I was busy with kid stuff, my mom organized my new shelves and learning materials in what used to be our laundry/storage area made into a room with a bookshelf wall. The last step is to hang a curtain to keep visiting kids out of the fragile things.

Another important homeschooling step was the decision to try year-round schooling, so our schedule will run from July 2014 to June 2015. Although I don't have to register as a homeschooling family in WA (our state of residence) until Raccoon is 8, I feel concerned about getting in the required 180 school days. I am not so worried about the 11 required subjects: reading, writing, spelling, language, math, science, social studies, history, health, occupational education, and art and music appreciation. Having a soft start in July is like school days' extra credit before our more structured schedule begins in September. We'll see how it goes; we're three days in so far.

What are we up to? Raccoon's current passion is catching bugs for his two insect boxes that his Grama gave him. He has all of his neighborhood friends also chasing after tarantulas and grasshoppers along with him. So far the only thing we can sustain in captivity is garden spiders. We have abundant flies and a nifty little jar with a pivoting door to catch them. It has been interesting to have an arachnid on our kitchen counter. We are now onto spider #4 because spider #1 was released into the wild, spider #2 hid in the container instead of being released with its roommate #1, then it ate spider #3. We got spider #4 from a beautiful web in our back yard. I was hoping it would spin a web in the box, but with the abundance of flies it seems to be content with a few silk threads here and there.

My mom also brought down a lot of hands-on kits (pictured below), so we jumped right into those. What we're doing doesn't even feel like school to Raccoon, which is why I like the year-round model for now.

Spider #4

Sneaking in some pre-writing activities

Music, Art, and Language

Science

Raccoon's first microscope! Unfortunately it only works on at 100X but not at the 300X nor the 600X settings. It was pretty cheap though, and my goal was just to familiarize with handling the slides and microscope. He was so excited when we bought it and says he wants to be a scientist when he grows up. The next thing he wants is his own lab, like Johnny Test's sisters. :)

The chemistry kit is pretty basic but Raccoon likes it since it came with balloons, straws, pipets, etc. He's more interested in combining things to do his own "experiments," but we've done several of the activities so far.

Math

This is a bit beyond Raccoon, but we've put together several of the circuits. I think it's good exposure to a grid system (the instructions give coordinates like A4) and for following directions. We made a Star Wars alarm today. My only complaint is that I still have no idea how electricity works even after making the models. I plan to do a little research of my own so I can explain it better to Raccoon. He thinks the parts can just be put together willy nilly. The plastic cases are good for protection but they also make it so that neither one of us knows what is actually going on.

This was Raccoon's book at occupational therapy in the US, which his therapist kindly gave to us when we left.  He has never been much of a pencil and paper guy, so I think the activities in here will be good practice for him. He does not like to color at all, although he will draw or paint things occasionally. This is the only school thing that he would not choose to do on his own, but I have promised him a prize upon completion of the entire book.

Boosting Structure

As a teen, I think I pretty much spent my summers reading. I read this post on the summer doldrums and her last sentence in tiny writing caught my eye, "Help yourself and autistic loved ones by boosting structure (schedules) and encouraging the pursuit of special interests."

No one in my family is on the spectrum as far as I know, but there is some overlap with our sensory issues and I find her blog comforting and familiar somehow.

All this is to say that more structure is looming on our horizon! My mom's visit has given us a fully organized and very functional school room in what used to be our laundry/storage corner. Thank you, Mom!

Celosia School will begin with a soft start this week and continue on until our "official" start in September. Year E here we come!

On the docket for this week is an electric circuit board my mom brought down, a USA puzzle with Grampa, and some building projects with Dad. And maybe more chocolate chip cookies.

Raccoon wants a lab. This is percolating in my brain right now. How to keep things safe yet still interesting... :)

Homeschooling it is

I called a semi-local school with an English curriculum but their K is full, so homeschooling it is. I feel terrified.

Top fears that make my heart pound:
1) Will Raccoon learn to read?
2) Will I have enough time to prepare?
3) How is Kitty going to fit in to the picture? How will I be able to do Tot school with her, or at least keep her from eating the crayons?
4) What am I going to do when the comparison monster shows up (ah he's falling behind -panic!)
5) Will I be able to find a mother's helper, and if I don't will my house (or I) fall apart. (I know this one sounds spoiled and whiney, but my life is intense trying to keep up with all my plate spinning responsibilities).

Aside from these sweat-inducing topics, there is part of me that is also really, really excited. My mom is bringing me down 50 lbs of books. I should be able to be successful with that, right?

And if not, school registration starts in December... :)

Celosia Mottos

* against the forceful tide

* growth under the surface (found here)


I was reading an ebook the other night by Connie Stults called Finding Your Vision: Beginning (or Continuing) Your Homeschool Journey with the End in Mind. I found it very thought-provoking to work through her questions.

In a nutshell, my desire for homeschooling Raccoon and Kitty is to help them love God, love themselves, and love others.

But how are we going to get there? This is where I find picture phrases helpful.

Against the forceful tide - develop a strong sense of self-worth and self-knowledge, value diversity, be hardworking, inventive, creative, confidant, strive for excellence, unafraid to be different, bold, to speak against injustice and to be passionate.

Growth under the surface -  I want each of my children to be able to grow their own way in their own time, learning as a lifestyle, every day with the end in mind

The kind of teacher I want to be? Someone who believes in their potential and is confident that we will arrive together.

 

Math

Language and science seem to come naturally to me, but I often filled in my math column last when doing lesson plans. It also seems to be my least intuitive area when I just let learning flow throughout the day (with my new approach of gently guiding towards large goals using certain materials but no preplanned activities). This surprises me a little since I enjoyed it in school (up until my junior year of high school when I felt like I never really got the concepts, despite my decent grades).

I discovered today that I'm not doing so bad after all when I read this post on math goals for kindergarten. We're nowhere near counting to 100, but Raccoon is familiar with many of the ideas on the list (red are the least familiar to him). What a relief.

Curious?

This is the list:

count 1-100, by 1s, 2s, 5s, and 10s
count backwards 10-1
use and understand a number line, hundred chart, ten frame {identify numbers before & after}
estimate number of objects {20 or less}
sorting by multiple attributes {color, shape, size, etc}
patterns
basic addition and subtraction {understand +, -, and = symbols}
basic story problems
plane shapes ~ square, circle, oval, triangle, rectangle, octagon, hexagon {and more}
3D shapes ~sphere, rectangular prism, cylinder, cone {and more}
basic understanding of fractions {half, quarter, third}
basic understanding of symmetry
identify penny, nickel, dime, quarter, dollar
order by size, length, weight, amount
ordinal numbers to 1st-10th
graphing up to 10 {analyzing graph}
write numbers up to 20
read number words up to ten
positional words
basic understanding of telling time to the hour
understands time of day {morning, afternoon, evening, etc}
basic calendar skills {days, months}
basic understanding of temperature